ALBAWABA - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Microsoft $20 million to settle lawsuits related to the company's violation of children's privacy.
The FTC stated in a statement that Microsoft had collected information about children illegally and without parental consent, which constitutes a violation of the US law on electronic child privacy. The company retained the personal information of children registered with the Xbox gaming system.
The legal action requires Microsoft to take measures to improve the privacy policy for children in its gaming console unit, as well as for external game publishers with whom it shared the data of children.
According to the complaints against the company, it retained the data it collected about children during the process of creating personal accounts from 2015 to 2020.
A spokesman for Microsoft stated that the company was committed to complying with the legal action and was currently addressing a flaw it discovered in its data retention systems.
The law requires electronic websites and services to notify parents of children under 13 years of age about the personal information that needs to be collected, along with parental consent before using it.
